Vipassana Meditation 10-Day Course

This is the last part of a 3-part series on meditation, its benefits and how
you can learn to meditate yourself.

Part 1: 10 Reasons You Should Meditate

Part 2: How To Meditate In 5 Easy Steps

Part 3: Vipassana Meditation 10-Day Course
(Originally written and published on Jul 13, 2009)
I just returned from my Vipassana 10-Day Meditation Course! The past 10
days has been some of the most well-invested 10 days of my life. After some
100 hours of intensive meditation (think continuous, non-stop meditation
(save for a few breaks in between) from the wee hours of 4:30am all the way
till 9pm every day for consecutive ten days) Im now feeling filled with an
inner sense of calmness or equanimity, which means a balanced and even
mind. Im in quite a zen and peaceful state as Im writing this post now.
(On a separate note, I am now faced with an overflowing inbox of nearly 200
emails though, so thats going to be a large piece of clutter to deal with!)
The most important thing is, this is not going to be a one-time effect that will
dissipate afterward something common in many motivational and spiritual
courses alike. While Im now back in the real environment where there are
many consciousness-lowering noise and clutter (as compared to during the
course, when we are kept offshore and away from the hustle and bustle of city
life in the serene recluse of St Johns Island), the course has equipped me with
the knowledge and skill to practice the technique by myself, so I can continue
reaping the benefits as long as I keep up with the daily habit of practicing it,
albeit in a less intense manner.
Since I found this really beneficial, I decided share my experience with
Vipassana meditation, so others who have not participated in the course
before can consider if they wish to do so after reading it. If you have not heard
of Vipassana or you have not experienced it before, I highly recommend you
to join this course to experience for yourself. Of course, if you have no interest
in meditation whatsoever, please skip this article. Otherwise, read on!
Before you continue though, I should make clear two disclaimers -
1) Im not being paid to write this; neither am I affiliated with the organization
which conducted the course. This is probably pretty obvious, but its good to
highlight it anyway.
2) This course is not affiliated with any religion or any sect of any sort. I have
an acquaintance who, much to my surprise, mistook this course as part of a
religious group when I told him I was going on a meditation retreat. Its really
quite the opposite. This course is not linked with any religion, sect,
denomination, order, cult, or communion of any sortand does not
involve conversion or denouncing of religious faiths. It doesnt matter whether
you are Buddhist, Taoist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jew, Atheist. Its for any
person who wants to self-improve and live a better life.
Meditation as a practice has never been limited to a particular sect or religion
anyway it is a universal practice which all the great spiritual leaders,
religious or not, have always been practicing. Over the centuries, certain forms
of meditation started to become sectoral in nature due to the certain rites or
rituals they are performed with, but this is not the case for Vipassana
meditation. Its a non-sectoral, non-religious meditation technique.
The intent of this 10-day course is to teach you the fundamentals of the
Vipassana meditation technique so you can apply it and experience the
benefits. Thats the reason why this course has been so popular among people
from all walks of life, religions, nationalities and social classes, because its not
secluded to a particular community or sect of people. All these people have
attended the course before and walked away experiencing tremendous benefits
from it regardless of their values or belief system.
Personally, Im non-religious; I seek whats the highest truth, based on my
own conscious exploration and experience. To date, I havent written anything
explicitly on religion on the blog, because religion typically involves deeply
rooted beliefs and values, which results in very sticky discussions beyond what
I wish to be handling at this stage. For now, I want to be focused on the more
immediately applicable frameworks of self-improvement.
If you have been reading the blog for a while, you will know that I actively
encourage you to always consciously evaluate what you see and hear, including
what you read here. Decide for yourself whats your truth. It is not my place to
convert you to my viewpoints nor do I desire anyone to unconsciously buy into
what I say.
Ill share some background on Vipassana meditation and its benefits in the
first half of this article and cover the details of the course in the second half.
What is Vipassana Meditation?
The term Vipassana literally means to to see things as they are. It is said this
is the meditation technique Buddha used to attain enlightenment. In
my previous meditation post, I highlighted 3 main categories of meditation
still/mindfulness meditation, moving/walking meditation or concentration
meditation. Vipassana meditation falls under still/mindfulness meditation.
To be honest, before attending this course, I thought I had kind of read and
seen it all when it came to meditation. Sure, we can use meditation to
concentrate our mind, remove the clutter, heal ourselves, visualize the future,
communicate with our subconsciousness, and a whole series of other benefits.
My original intent when signing up for the course 2 months ago was to
sharpen my meditation skills and permanently instill the habit of meditating
into my life through an deep dive into it. Little was I expecting to learn a
totally different meditation technique with a different purpose to purify the
mind and body, at the fundamental particle level. Thats what Vipassana
meditation is about.
Purification of Mind and Body
What does it mean to purify? In our daily life, we experience different
emotions, ranging from pleasant to unpleasant ones. The untrained mind
deals with these emotions with a sense of attachment, or clinging. This results
in craving for pleasant experiences and aversion toward the unpleasant ones.
Over time, peoples happiness becomes hinged by external events. When they
achieve a certain outcome, they are happy. When they dont, they become
miserable.
However, these are just objective occurrences. If something happens, it
happens. If it doesnt, it doesnt. The negativity we generate are really a
product of our own creation.
Based on the philosophy of Vipassana, every negativity we generate creates a
form of impurity in our mind and body. Bit by bit, these impurities
accumulate. It was never directly articulated during the course, but the
insinuation is that over time, these impurities manifest outward in the form of
physical ailments or diseases. Common solution is to use medicine but thats
just dealing with the problem at a symptomatic level. Sometimes they dont
work; sometimes they work. When they do work, the physical problems return
again later on, since the original framework of the mind that creates impurities
(due to attachment, craving and aversion) was never dealt with.
Thats where Vipassana comes in. It lets you purify yourself at the particle
level. When you purify your mind, your body starts becoming purified as well.
To do that, you have to stop generating attachment, cravings or aversions.
Meaning, a completely objective state of mind to anything that happens i.e.,
equanimity.
The Technique
How do you do that? By becoming an observer of yourself and the reality as it
is. During the meditation, you turn your observation, inward, and objectively
observe your respiration (as it is, not through regulating your respiration in
any way) and sensations all around your body.
Being an observer of the reality means that if theres any unpleasant sensation
during the meditation (perspiration, aches, pain, numbness, itch, external
disturbances etc), you observe it without generating any form of negativity or
aversion. If theres any pleasant sensations (cool breeze, nice music, etc), you
observe it without generating any form of attachment or craving. When you
achieve the state of perfect equanimity regardless of whats there, the
impurities of your past will start clearing away, layer by layer.
No chanting, verbalization or visualizations take place because these involve
alterations of reality which deviates from what reality truly is. This is why the
technique is different from the mainstream healing techniques. Those
typically involve being a creator of some sort, through visualization or
imagination such as white light surrounding your body.
While it sounds simple, there are several steps to take before one can
accurately do so as the technique requires. During the course, they trained us
to be objective observers during the meditation, without resorting to
verbalization or visualizations of any sort. Then, they taught us how to sharpen
our minds focus such that we can sense minute level sensations in our body.
We also learned how exactly to go about observing our sensations. There is a
good balance of theory and practice during the course.
Because the Vipassana technique is more complicated than your regular run-
of-the-mill meditation techniques, full explanation of what it involves and how
to apply it is beyond what can be done with an article. If you are interested, I
highly recommend you take the 10-day course and experience it for yourself
under the guidance of the teachers, its facilities and controlled environment,
so you can reap the most benefits. The cost is free and donation based anyway,
so if you dont like it, you can choose not to donate at the end. Ill share more
on the course later in the article.
Benefits of Vipassana Meditation
Of course, the course does not directly claim to be a remedy for illnesses or
medical conditions, though there have been many cases of people whose
physical and mental problems became remedied after they practiced the
meditation technique.
I havent mentioned this before, but since the past year, there were often times
I couldnt sleep totally flat on my back. Whenever I tried to do that, there
would be an unbearable pain on the base of my spine. I think it was partially
due to my previous poor posture when working at the desk, which resulted in
pressure in my lower back. Because of that, I usually sleep every night on my
side or curling up.
Since I didnt know about the background of Vipassana even till the day
leading to the course, I only learned about it as the course was unfolding. I had
no knowledge on its lauded benefits of this technique or experiences of others
so I wasnt holding any specific expectations other than the standard increased
mental clarity and concentration from regular meditation. Physical healing
was definitely one of the last things on my mind.
Yet during the first few sessions of meditation, I started to be able to lie on my
back at times. It happened so naturally that I didnt even realize that this was
an abnormality until after a few days. Towards the end of the course, I started
being able to lie completely flat on my bed fully, something which I very much
welcomed .
During the course, the teacher S.N. Goenka (you can check out his wiki profile)
shared that he experienced acute migraines many years ago while he was still
in his previous profession as a highly successful businessman. Consultation
with many top doctors around the world brought fruitless results.
After that, he sought out Vipassana meditation as a last resort for his
migraines. Somehow, after practicing it, his migraines went away. Just like
that. Since then, he has since committed himself to a life of sharing and
spreading the technique to others.
This probably sounds ludicrous if you are a very pragmatic person. How can
this even be possible? Some will be quick to say that its just all in the mind,
like its all made up or imagined. Probably a placebo effect?
All I can say is, dont take my word for what I say here. Try it out and
experience it for yourself. The truth can only be experienced on your level.
Thats something I really like about the course. S.N. Goenka repeatedly
emphasizes on discovering the truth as you experience it, not because he
teaches it. In no stage did I feel like I was imposed upon with any of their
views.
There were also other benefits that came out of it, such as increased
concentration ability (probably an output of all forms of meditation), being
present to the moment, inner calmness from having cleared all the chunks of
clutter in the past 10-days (about 100 hours of intensive meditation!) and an
increased sense of objectivity or equanimity. I had quite a few deep revelations
about myself during the ten-day period, though some are more of a result of
being given time alone to think rather than from the technique. Ill be sharing
these over time through future articles.
While Vipassana meditation is very powerful, I still see the benefits of other
different meditation techniques though, such as for problem-solving,
to brainstorm, to consult our subconsciousness and so on, so Ill still be using
the other techniques as the situation calls for it. For now, Ill start using this
for my morning and night hourly meditations, until I know of a technique that
is gives even better benefits. (By the way, if you havent cultivated the habit of
meditating regularly, perhaps its a good time to stop reading about it and start
doing it now through the 21-Day program!)
Different Vipassana Techniques
After Buddhas time, Vipassana continued to be widely taught in India and
countries for many centuries, until people started altering the technique and
the original technique became lost. According to Goenka, the purest form of
Vipassana continued to be taught and passed on from a limited line of teachers
to pupils only within Burma. It was only a few decades ago when the
Vipassana movement got triggered and spread beyond Burma, extending
across Asia and even to the West.
Today, there are many different variants of Vipassana taught by different
groups all around the world. One of the participants previously went to
another retreat which taught the Vipassana technique which was different
from what was taught in the course. Goenka claims the Vipassana technique
he teaches is the purest form of the Vipassana technique as taught by Buddha.
Frankly speaking, it seems to be legit, and I dont see any reason for him to lie.
To date, the technique has delivered a tremendous scale and depth of benefits
for tens of thousands of people since he started teaching it about 40 years ago.
If you have learned Vipassana meditation from a different group, it is likely a
variant form. The best way to contrast the benefits is to try out this 10-day
course yourself.
Information on the 10-Day Course
If you are interested to take part, heres some information which might be
helpful.
Location
While the course I went to is in Singapore, its offered all around the world,
including US, Malaya, Burma, Indonesia, Taiwan, Europe, Australia). You can
check more at the full list of locations at the official site. There are different
languages offered, based on the location. The retreat locations are typically
located in a rural and quiet place away from noise and clutter typical of city
life.
Frequency
The frequency is dependent on the location. For Singapore, its held thrice a
year in April, July and November. In some countries like Taiwan and
Malaya, it occurs as frequently as once a month or even twice a month. Check
the site for more details.
People
The size of the course batch varies based on the center you are having the
course and the number of people who apply. They definitely try to take in as
many people as possible. In my course batch, there were about 80+ course
participants in total, half male and half female. Almost half of them were
Burmese (since this course is already well-known in the Burmese community),
and the rest were people of different nationalities. There were numerous old
students as well people who took it before and were retaking it again, to
reestablish themselves in the technique or as a regular retreat practice.
As for the people running the course and the assistant teachers, they are all
volunteers who took time out of their busy schedules to help out. Extremely
kind and benevolent people who have a nice harmonious aura around them. It
was a pleasant experience taking the course in their presence.
Food
I thought I should mention that the food was really quite amazing,
notwithstanding that the course is free to begin with! I was probably eating
better and more variety of food during the course than in my regular meals.
When I was talking to one of the volunteers after the course, they revealed that
there was a regular chef who would cook for every retreat. The recipes are
specially catered to suit local tastes. For example, the Singapore retreat
typically has Burmese and Chinese participants, thus the menu is dominated
with Burmese and Chinese dishes. Quite a lot of effort has been put in just to
maintain the welfare of the people.
By the way, the food served is vegetarian, in adherence with one of the moral
codes of Vipassana, which is not to kill living beings. Since Im a vegan, I didnt
have to make adaptations of any sort, though it shouldnt be a problem even if
you are not vegetarian. Most, if not all, of the participants are non-vegetarian
and found the food to really amazing as well. Some of them told me they felt
really clean and clear in their stomachs from the dietary change in the 10-days.
Meat-based food take longer to digest than plant-based food.
Fee
As mentioned above, the course is entirely free and run solely on donation
from previous course participants. Even all the food and accommodation
provided throughout the 10-days are free, which I thought is very gratuitous.
At the end of the 10-days, you can make a donation based on your own
capacity and desire from your own experience. It is entirely voluntary the
donation box is never handed individually for donations.
If not limited by financial reasons, I dont see any reason why one wouldnt
donate the course is well run, the people are great, the food is amazing and
most importantly, the meditation technique taught has invaluable benefits. If
anything, its really quite priceless.
All the money donated goes directly to running of future courses. Neither the
volunteers nor teachers are paid.
More Information
If you are interested to read more about Vipassana meditation, you can do
so here and in theQ&A on Vipassana. Information on the course and how to
sign up can be found at therespective country sites. If you do join, let me know
how it goes for you Im sure you will get wondrous benefits out of it as many
have too.